Radio Column for May 1, 1998


Arbitron was forced to recall its Winter book last Wednesday April 22 after it was discovered that 24 of 6,897 diaries were not counted. A software glitch was blamed (must be a Windows program), but the revised ratings were essentially unchanged from the original release the day before.

What is perhaps most interesting is that 6,897 people determine the ratings for the approximately 7 million radio listeners in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

In any event, a station that can't even be heard in parts of Los Angeles is now the number one station in the city: KSCA made another half-point jump to a 5.4 share, knocking KLVE -- which dropped from 6.1 to 5.3 -- into second place. KLVE's owners aren't complaining, though ... they also own KSCA.

KFI solidified its talk dominance by taking third and increasing to 4.4 from 4.0, beating KABC (down 0.4 to 2.6) by a whopping 1.8 points. KLSX was also down but only slightly, to 2.4 from 2.5.

On the rock front, KROQ was up 0.4 to 3.4, KCBS-FM was down to 2.5 from 2.7, and KLOS declined 0.3 to 2.3. KBIG increased 0.3 to 3.0 ... good, but not good enough to overtake KOST, which stayed flat at 3.8.

The former B-100 (now Mega 100) was up in a big way, increasing to 2.7 from 1.4 -- the highest rating in years for the 100.3 frequency. On the other hand, KRLA -- which runs a format similar to Mega -- was down, 0.2 to 0.6, its lowest rating in years. The drop at KRLA is not unexpected, however, as any station that carries Angels baseball and Mighty Ducks hockey is bound to do poorly (ever wonder why Disney -- owner of the Ducks and the Angels -- does NOT carry them on their own stations?).

The full story: Each rating is an estimate of the percentage of listeners, aged 12 and over, tuned to a station between the hours of 6 am and 12 midnight.

station fall-winter

  1. KSCA 4.9-5.4
  2. KLVE 6.1-5.3
  3. KFI 4.0-4.4
  4. KPWR 4.2-4.0
  5. KKBT 4.5-3.9

  6. KIIS 4.0-3.8
  7. KOST 3.8-3.8
  8. KRTH 4.0-3.4
  9. KLAX 2.1-3.4
  10. KROQ 3.0-3.4

  11. KTWV 3.4-3.3
  12. KBIG 2.7-3.0
  13. KYSR 2.8-2.9
  14. KCMG 1.4-2.7
  15. KABC 3.0-2.6

  16. KCBS 2.7-2.5
  17. KNX 2.0-2.5
  18. KLSX 2.5-2.4
  19. KZLA 2.7-2.3
  20. KLOS 2.6-2.3

  21. KLAC 2.3-2.2
  22. KFWB 2.1-2.1
  23. KKGO 1.7-1.9
  24. KTNQ 2.1-1.8
  25. KBUE 1.6-1.7

  26. KSSE 1.2-1.6
  27. KJLH 1.4-1.2
  28. KLYY 1.0-.8
  29. KACE .9-.8
  30. XTRA .8-.8

  31. KRLA .8-.6
  32. KKLA .4-.6
  33. KKHJ .7-.6
  34. KFSG .4-.5
  35. KACD .5-.5
  36. KIEV .5-.5

  37. KDIS ---.4
  38. KWVE .5-.4
  39. KGIL ---.4
  40. KGGI ---.4
  41. KIKF .4-.3
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